


His Return

by Maisie_top_trash



Series: Unseen - Fear Will Lose [8]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Anxiety, Depression, M/M, Mental Illness, OCD, Schizoaffective Disorder, mental health, psychiatric hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 02:58:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8270033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maisie_top_trash/pseuds/Maisie_top_trash
Summary: Unseen Fear Will Lose is a series of single chapter stories showing unseen scenes from the same universe as my main story, Fear Will Lose. In order to fully enjoy these extra bits, I recommend you go and read that first.Fear Will Lose14 months after Tyler's first admission to Cygnet Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, Josh pays a visit to his family's home in search of peace and quiet.





	

"Hi Maddy, my roommate's having a party at our place and I've got this huge paper due in on Monday, can I come and use some of your peace and quiet please?" Josh asked, leaning against the Joseph's doorframe with a huge law textbook and his laptop.

It was an almost weekly occurrence, so Josh was slightly surprised when Maddy took a moment to think about the request. As she stood blocking his entrance, Zack appeared behind her.

"Oh hey Josh, another party? Come in," Zack smiled.  
"Zack are you sure?" Maddy whispered.  
"Yeah yeah, make yourself at home." Zack repeated, and Maddy begrudgingly moved out of the way and allowed him to follow Zack into the kitchen.

 

He routinely plugged his laptop in the socket to charge and settled in his usual seat whilst Zack got them both Red Bulls.

"So go on, what joy are you delving in this evening?"  
"Sneaky bit of Exclusion Causes," Josh answered, taking a sip and opening the document.  
"Oh that doesn't sound too bad, I mean I understood every word in that sentence which makes a change."  
"You're a genius, I think you should come with me tomorrow and demand a honourary degree for that advanced level of understanding."  
"Shut up," Zack laughed,

"Have you started it yet?"  
"Yep, I'm about a third done," Josh answered whilst rubbing his jaw and staring at the screen.  
"Go on then, test me, read me something and I'll wow you with my knowledge."  
"K this is the paragraph I'm on at the moment, it's about incorporation in signed documents."  
"Yep, but you didn't need to tell me that because I would have known from the moment you opened your mouth."

"Course course. If the claimant signs a document purporting to have contractual effect containing an exclusion clause, he is bound by its terms. This is so even if he has not read the document and regardless of whether he understands it or not; L’Estrange v Graucob, CA, 1934. However, even a signed document can be rendered wholly or partly ineffective by a misrepresentation as to its effect; in Curtis v Chemical Cleaning and Dyeing Co Ltd, CA, 1951, the claimant took-"  
"1951 yep yep yep, I know all about that, so yanno, keep working and maybe one day you'll be on my level." Zack grinned before leaving Josh to his paper and walking up the stairs.

 

  
Josh had been working for an hour straight when he was interrupted by somebody walking into the kitchen. At first he didn't believe his eyes, but after a couple of blinks he realised that Tyler really was staring right back at him terrified.

The man had been at Cygnet for the past 14 months and Josh wasn't technically a relative so he hadn't been allowed to see him, and now suddenly he was right there, right in front of him.

"Tyler?"  
"Mom!" Tyler cried out, staring at Josh with wary eyes.

"I'm here baby, I'm here. Oh, uh, hi Josh. Um, give us a minute," Kelly said as she walked into the room and held Tyler's hand, then noticed Josh sat at the table. All Josh could do was nod as Kelly supportively pulled Tyler back out of the room.

 

And he remained sat in slight shock until Zack came back in and sat down next to him again.  
"Dude you look like you've seen a ghost."  
"Tyler."  
"Yep, he's home." Zack confirmed casually.  
"What? I thought they were keeping him for at least 18 months,"  
"So did they, but Mom had other ideas. Marched in there and discharged him last week."  
"Last week?! And no one thought to tell me?"  
"I'm the same man, I was at college and I came home for the weekend and sure enough, there he was."

"But why did nobody tell me?"  
"I dunno, Mom's doing it in baby steps I think, so like he doesn't get overwhelmed."  
"But it's, it's me. Someone should have told me."  
"And then what? You rush over here and he gets fucking triggered and has another breakdown?" Zack replied protectively.

"Shit, sorry Josh, I dunno what I'm saying."  
"You think I trigger him?"  
"No,"  
"Zack be honest with me." Josh snapped.  
"Well I mean he did go fucking mental when you disappeared, and it was you who he kept seeing, and you are the one he didn't accept as real, and you are his ex, and you haven't seen each other for over a year."

"This isn't my fault," Josh told Zack, shaking his head in slight disbelief.  
"I'm not saying it's your fault! I'm just saying, you know, you play a big role in this and you storming straight back into his life all guns blazing isn't exactly the baby steps approach my mom is aiming for."  
"All I wanted was to be told tha-"

"Shh," Zack silenced him as they heard voices outside the kitchen door, and Josh nodded and swallowed. "I'm sorry, I should have told you," he mouthed silently, and Josh gave him a forgiving nod as the voices continued.

A moment later, Kelly and Tyler walked back in holding hands. They walked straight to the end of the table then stopped and both faced Josh and Zack. Kelly squeezed Tyler's hand.

"Hello Josh, it is good to see you and I hope you are well." Tyler said overly rehearsed and uniformed with no real emotion, then quickly followed his mother straight back out of the room again.

"You alright?" Zack asked when Josh sat silent, not sure what to do or think or feel.  
"I don't know," Josh replied very slowly.  
"Give him some time, he'll be back to his normal self soon."  
"I highly doubt he'll ever be the same Tyler again." Josh sighed, rubbing his face and shutting his laptop.

"No course he won't be the same, but he'll still be Tyler."  
"Yeah," Josh sighed again.  
"Look I hate this too, I miss him, I miss him so damn much, but there's nothing we can do about it alright? We can't go back in time, so we've just got to deal with what we have now."  
"Yeah,"  
"We gotta be grateful that there's still even a shell of Tyler left at all, yeah? Because we both know how close we were to losing him entirely."  
"Yeah you're right,"

"He's trying really hard. You must have been able to tell how difficult that was for him to talk to you, but he did it. That's him showing you that's he's fighting, and he's putting in the work, and pushing himself to get better and beat this thing. That's him showing you that he cares about you." Zack comforted Josh.  
"Thank you Zack,"

"Hi boys, sorry if I'm interrupting," Kelly said softly as she walked back into the room.  
"No it's okay," Josh reassured her.

"Zack I've just put your brother to bed-"  
"Want me to go sit with him?" Zack finished for her.  
"If you don't mind sweetheart, just whilst I talk to Josh."  
"Not a problem, he had his medications already?" Zack asked, standing up and slowly moving towards the door.  
"Yeah, he just needs to be sat with and preferably talked to - tell him a story if you can find the energy,"  
"Course," Zack nodded, then closed the door behind him.

"Josh honey," Kelly began sympathetically, reaching her hand across the table and taking Josh's. "I'm so sorry this is how you had to find out,"  
"Were you ever going to tell me?"  
"Of course I was, of course. I just thought it would be for the best if we gave Tyler some time to settle back into life at home, get his head around the changes he's going through here before inviting you around. He needs time to adjust to things."  
"Right,"

"But I am sorry, must have been quite a shock."  
"Yeah you could say that. Is, uh, h-how is he?"  
"Better, still not 100%, but he's definitely better."  
"Is he still schizoaffective?" Josh asked cautiously, scared for the answer.  
"Sweetie he's always going to be schizoaffective."  
"Oh," Josh failed to mask his disappointment.  
"And whilst he was in hospital, the doctors diagnosed him with OCD."  
"Right," Josh sighed, taking his hand back from Kelly's grip and rubbing his face.

"Why did you take him out of hospital early?"  
"He didn't like it there, Cygnet have to be quite strict and it got to the point where the regime wasn't helping him anymore, it was just making him more and more anxious. Tyler and I talked about it for a couple of weeks and decided that he was ready to move on. The hospital was amazing in coping with his hallucinations and delusions, that's their specialty, but they're not so good with his anxiety. He didn't like being told that he had to sit in a room with lots of very sick patients for group therapy, and them being more unwell than him was scaring him a lot. All the screaming and shouting was too much and he's been having lots of panic attacks. Tyler agreed with me that we needed to get him out of that environment and into one where we can love him and support him through it in a way he agrees is productive, and that's why he's home."  
"Yeah,"

"And it's not as though we are looking after him independently, he's got lots of support in place now. He has medications that he takes, and a treatment team assigned to him. We've got a crisis plan in place if he gets really sick suddenly, and all sorts of numbers we can call and appointments booked. They've given him a big Recovery and Wellbeing file filled with coping strategies, safety plans, distraction skills, goal setting exercises, relapse prevention and a week planner so he'll be able to use that positively."  
"Yeah, um, that's good." Josh nodded, still taking in all the new information.

"Does he uh, has he been hallucinating?"  
"A little, but he told me that he's been really anxious with all the changes going on and that's why he's been unwell. And he can identify it as not real now, so that's amazing progress; he'll tell me that he's unwell and then he'll tell me what he sees and he'll ask me to watch him and make sure he's safe and doesn't interact with it. So far that's happened 4 times since he came home, and he hasn't interacted a single time, not even looking in their direction. He's doing great."

"So, uh, so he's okay? Like he's doing okay?" Josh checked again.  
"He's a big ball of anxiety so he needs a lot reassurance, but that's understandable. He's just a scared little boy who needs his Mom, and that will wear off as he gets used to being at home again. Then with his OCD we've had to change a couple of things in the house so it's easier for him, and the two of us spend quite a lot of time sorting and arranging but he admitted to me that it is another way of him trying to combat his anxiety. He's so self aware, honestly Josh I'm blown away. Tyler knows exactly why he's doing what he's doing, and what he can do to help himself; it gives me a lot of hope for the future."  
"Great," Josh nodded quietly, his mind racing and spinning with the speed of his thoughts, trying to get his head around it all.

Last time he'd seen Tyler he'd been desperately suicidal, and now it sounded as if he was a changed man. Josh couldn't help but wonder whether Tyler's feelings towards Josh had changed. Would they even get on anymore? If he really was a different person, would Josh still love him? Would Tyler still want to know him? Josh's mind continued to whirl.

"Josh sweetheart,"  
"Yeah?"  
"Are you okay?" Kelly asked sincerely, taking his hand again.  
"Yeah yeah, it's uh, it's just a lot to take in."  
"Of course it is, so take your time baby. And I really am sorry that I didn't tell you sooner, I just didn't want to push him too far."  
"I understand,"

"But it seems I was worrying for nothing, didn't he do great?" She smiled.  
"Yeah that was really lovely of him," Josh nodded, thinking about Tyler's over practiced performance.  
"I wasn't sure it was a good idea, but he convinced me. He really really wanted to talk to you sweetheart, I know he misses you a lot."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah, he asks after you all the time. I've told him all about your new apartment and your roommates and your acceptance into law school. He's really proud of you Josh,"  
"He said that?"  
"About a dozen times," Kelly nodded and Josh smiled.

"Do you think maybe it would be okay if I, um, came round again later in the week?"  
"Almost definitely, let me talk to Tyler and see if he would like that, and I'll call you I promise. I'm sure he'll love to spend some time with you and for you two to get close again, just be patient."


End file.
